Target
by kathfire
Summary: After an attempt is made on Catherine's life, the entire CSI team tries to find out who's behind it I so hate summaries, the story is better than this, I promiss
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, just the story.  
  
My English isn't very good, because I'm not a native-speaker, but hey, it's getting better!  
  
Target  
  
"Good evening Catherine"  
  
"Good evening Grissom, anything interesting yet?"  
  
"Not really, but you know that never takes very long around here."  
  
"Unfortunately. I could use a break after our last case, that one kinda got to me."  
  
She went for a cup of coffee and settled herself in the break room, planning to do some paperwork she should have done ages ago. Nick and Sarah, who clearly had the same idea, soon walked in and joined her.  
  
"Behind on the paperwork to Cath?" Nick asked.  
  
"Yeah, it's just so boring, I keep putting it off."  
  
"I know the feeling, good catch on that last case bye the way."  
  
"To bad you didn't think of it earlier, would have saved us a lot of trouble, but hey, nobody's perfect, not even you." Sarah sneered, surprising both Catherine and Nick.  
  
'Okay', Catherine thought, 'somebody is in a bad mood'... She really didn't know what had gotten into Sarah lately. She couldn't seem to get a nice answer out of her for some reason. She decide to just ignore it, Sarah would probably brighten up after a couple of cups of coffee, which apparently she lacked at the moment. Nick smiled at her and mouthed 'little sunshine' which made her snicker and clearly pissed of Sarah even further.  
  
After about half an hour Warrick walked in with Grissom. "Hey Nick, we've got a case." He said.  
  
"Actually we have two," Grissom said. "Sarah, Catherine, you with me, we have an apparent murder. Nick your with Warrick"  
  
Half an hour later Catherine, Sarah and Grissom pulled up before a house just outside the Strip. Two police cars were parked in front of it. Captain Jim Brass was waiting in the front garden for them. He walked to the car and brought them up to date on the situation inside.  
  
"One gunshot vic. Female, Caucasian, 32 years old. Name's Debrah Dunvey, used to live her alone. According to the neighbours her only family lives on the other side of the country and she currently isn't involved in a relationship. We cleared the house and garage so you're free to go inside."  
  
"Thanks Jim," Catherine said and followed Grissom and Sarah into the house.  
  
Inside it was a big mess, their victim was at the bottom of the stairs, dressed in pyjamas with a gunshot wound in the head. The whole house was just one big mess. Closets had been emptied on the floor and the spot that probably had held the T.V. first was now empty.  
  
"Looks like burglary to me," Sarah said, "I'll go check outside if there are any traces there. If they took stuff with them, there probably was a car involved. And the yard may hold some footprints" she added while walking outside  
  
"They were rather messy," Grissom said while looking around, "we should be able to find something somewhere."  
  
"No traces of gunpowder on the vic." Said Catherine, "she probably was shot from a reasonable distance, she doesn't have any bruises so she wasn't shot at the top of the stairs and fell down, she was already downstairs. Distance to the front door is too short, telling us the killer wasn't standing in the hallway. Which leaves us with the living room." She thought for a moment "How about this? She's asleep upstairs, hears some noise downstairs and walks in on a burglary. Burglar gets nervous and shoots her."  
  
"Plausible, but we don't know that much yet. Let's start in the living room, since we're most likely to find something useful there. You start in the back, I'll start in the front and we'll work our way towards each other."  
  
"Fine by me," Catherine smiled. She liked working with Grissom; he had a rather unique look at cases, but always worked the scene extremely systematic. He also made sure she didn't unconsciously twist the facts to fit the story as she thought it went down. With him she never worried that they might miss something. They both quietly went to work.  
  
In the back yard a women slowly walked up to a tree. There was a lot of activity at the front of the house, but no one seemed to bother about the back. From where she was standing she could see exactly what was going on in the living room. That blond- haired bitch was working the scene with an annoying superior look on her face, like always, she had watched her so many times. Always so sure that she wouldn't miss a thing, and the really annoying part was that she probably wouldn't, but this time there was al little surprise for her. Just something to make this crime scene one she wouldn't soon any time soon. She quickly looked around making sure no one saw her and then pulled out a gun. She was a good shooter and that bitch was a very easy target standing there. She smiled and aimed...  
  
Inside Katherine was dusting a cabinet that probably had held some silver. She had lifted at least a dozen of good prints, she just hoped they didn't all belong to the vic. Suddenly she heard a shot, immediately followed by the sound of breaking glass. She threw herself against the wall next to the window, adrenaline rushing through her veins. When she pulled out her gun, she noticed a sharp pain and a sticky substance on her hand. She looked down and saw blood pouring from a wound in her shoulder. She felt her knees getting weak as her gun slipped from her fingers. The last thing she saw was Grissom rushing towards her, before she collapsed on the floor.  
  
Okay, part two is on the way (yes I'm a very evil person to stop the story here). Some reviews may speed up the process and make me very, very happy. 


	2. target 2

Part 2  
  
Grissom looked up as he heard the sound from a gunshot and quickly ducked as he heard the sound of shattering glass. He took cover behind the couch and pulled out his gun, but no shots followed. He looked up to see if Catherine was all right and saw her with her back pressed against a wall for cover. He noticed a red spot on her shoulder that was quickly getting larger. Throwing all caution in the wind he ran towards her as he saw all colour drain from her face. He reached her just in time to catch her before she hit the floor. He yelled "officer down" over his shoulder, as he gently lowered her on the floor. Her breath was coming quickly and in ragged gasps. She was trying to focus but the pain clearly threatened to over take her.  
  
"Just keep breathing" he said, unable to think of a better advice. Behind him Jim raced into the room, gun raised. He took one look at the pair of them, than ordered an ambulance before kneeling next to Catherine.  
  
"What the hell happened," he asked.  
  
"I thought you cleared the scene," Grissom said angry.  
  
"We did, but apparently some idiot forgot to check the back yard"  
  
At that moment Sarah raced in, she was slightly shaking the as she noticed Catherine on the floor. "Is she alright?"  
  
"No she is not, somebody shot her," Grissom said angry before turning his attention back to Catherine. "Did you see who shot you?"  
  
Catherine tried to fight the dizziness, and managed to get out a weak "I couldn't see" The pain was almost overwhelming and all she wanted at the moment was to pass out, but she knew that that would probably be a bad idea.  
  
"Sarah, did you see anyone, you were in the garden."  
  
"Sorry, I didn't, I was at the left side of the house when I heard the shot. From my point of view I could only see part of the back yard, so I'm afraid I can only tell you where the shooter wasn't standing, not where he was, or who he was for that matter."  
  
"Assuming it is a he," Grissom added almost automatically.  
  
"The ambulance will be here in a minute," said Jim, before going outside, waiting to show the paramedics in.  
  
For Grissom it seemed to be the longest minute of his life, but relatively soon an ambulance pulled up in front of the house and the paramedics came rushing in. They quickly put Catherine on a gurney and lifted her into the ambulance.  
  
"Call Nick and Warrick and tell them to get over here as soon as they are finished. We now have a double crime scene." Grissom shouted to Sarah, before getting into the ambulance with Catherine.  
  
At the hospital Catherine was immediately rushed to the OR, leaving Grissom to wait and pray for good news. After what seemed like hours a doctor finally came to talk to him.  
  
"Will she be okay?"  
  
"She'll be fine, she actually had a lot of luck and a lot of bad luck at the same time. The bullet missed most of her muscles and only took out a small part of the bone in her shoulder, therefore doing very little damage. This means the wound should heal nicely, though it probably will hurt like hell for the next few days. The bad luck is that the bullet hit an artery, which caused massive blood loss. We got her started on an IV. We also got her started on some oxygen, not because she has any breathing trouble, but because the lack of blood caused some organs to receive to little oxygen, so we're trying to compensate by raising her oxygen-level."  
  
"Thank you doctor, can I go see her?"  
  
"Sure, but she'll be a little groggy from the painkillers."  
  
When he entered the hospital room Catherine was asleep. Her face was almost as white as the sheets of the bed and for one moment Grissom was shocked by how bad she looked. Her face was for a large part covered by an oxygen mask and fluids from an IV were steadily dripping into her arm. He quietly pulled up a chair next to her, but she woke up anyway.  
  
"Hey, how are you feeling?" He asked, unable to keep the concern he felt from his voice.  
  
"Terrible," her voice sounded muffled through the oxygen mask. "The doctor said I've been lucky though."  
  
"Depends on how lucky you have to be to get shot," he answered, making her smile.  
  
"Everybody else okay?"  
  
"Yeah, who ever it was he only fired one shot, which is a bit of a mystery, because he could easily have shot me as well, or Sarah for that matter. She probably was even an easier target, being alone outside "  
  
"So either somebody didn't like what I was doing, or somebody was specifically after me."  
  
"I wouldn't jump to that conclusion yet, though it is a possibility. There are a lot of possible explanations. Maybe the rest of the team will find something at the crime scene."  
  
"Maybe, you mind if I go back to sleep? I'm really tired."  
  
"Not at all," he said but he wasn't even sure if she had heard him, for she had gone back to sleep already. For a moment he considered joining the rest of the team at the crime scene, but decided against it. He didn't want to leave Catherine right now, no matter how much he wanted to get the person who did this to her.  
  
Two hours later Nick and Warrick entered the room, their face whitening at the sight of Catherine.  
  
"Oh my God," Nick whispered, "will she be alright? I thought she was shot in the shoulder. Does she have trouble breathing?"  
  
"She doesn't. She just lost too much blood to maintain a proper oxygen level in her body, so they're giving her some extra. Sarah not here?"  
  
"No, she was a little shocked by everything that happened. She went home to rest, can hardly blame her."  
  
"Any luck at the crime scene?" Grissom asked, keeping his voice down, not wanting to wake Catherine  
  
"Yes and no, we have a bullet from the vic. and we have the bullet that shot Catherine, so we should be able to compare them to see if they match, then at least we know if were looking for one suspect or two. The strange thing is that we didn't find any traces in the back yard, except a few shoe prints belonging to Sarah, since she checked out the yard after the shooting, though we know for sure now that the shooter must have been standing there, giving the trajectory of the bullet."  
  
"I'll look into it tomorrow, I want to solve this case as fast as possible."  
  
At that moment Warricks beeper went of, he looked at the number. "That's Greg, he promised me to compare the bullets immediately and call me with the results, I'll be right back" Warrick said while leaving the room. A few minutes later he came back with a rather worried look on his face.  
  
"Bad news, the bullets don't match, so were looking at two different shooters. I also talked to Jim; he caught our burglar, not a very bright type. He was breaking into another house and in his truck were some jewellery with Ms. Dunvey's name engraved in it. He has already confessed to everything, including shooting Ms. Dunvey. But he denied having anything to do with shooting Catherine, and since the neighbours called in the burglary more or less at the same time Catherine was shot, he even has an alibi, proving he didn't shoot Catherine."  
  
"Combined with the fact that both me and Sarah were as easy an target as Catherine, means we not just have a second killer, but a second killer who probably has it in for Catherine...  
  
Okay, end of part two, I hope you liked it, please make my day and review, I won't threaten that I'm not going to update if you don't review, cause I'm going to finish this story anyway. I like writing this one way too much. 


	3. target 3

Thank you so much for all the reviews, you really make me very happy. A lot of you seem to think Sarah might be the shooter. I have to admit I don't really like her and apparently it shows, but I'm not going to tell you if she is it or not, just read on.

_One other thing, I'm from Holland and we are severely behind on CSI episodes, so if I'm not up to date with the latest developments, sorry!_

Part three, enjoy!

Catherine was sitting behind her desk. It had only been two weeks since the night she got shot, but she didn't feel like staying at home anymore. The hospital had discharged her after eight days and as much as she had liked spending some quality time with Lindsey, she just wanted to get back to work. Everybody had kept her up to date with his or her findings, but nobody had found anything of importance. Someone tried to kill her, leaving absolutely no traces, which probably meant it was a pro, but they didn't even know that for sure. She wondered why on earth somebody would want to kill her. Or had it just been some random idiot on a killing spree and had she simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time?

There was a short knock on the door, followed by Nick entering her room.

"Hey Cath, back at work already? Are you sure that's a good idea?" he asked looking a little worried. "I mean, getting shot is rather traumatising."

"I'm fine, really. I just get bored sitting at home."

"Hey, you know we'll find the guy who did this to you, but it may take a while."

She smiled, "I know, I'm just not a very patient person right now."

"Well, you have more than enough paperwork to keep you busy, and if you're finished, you can always have some of mine." He said with an evil smile.

Catherine groaned, "Do you have any idea how slow I type if I can only use one hand? I can't even sign anything, because my signature looks all wrong when I make it with my left hand" she said pointing at her right arm, which was immobilised by a sling.

"Poor girl, but hey, you can always go home?"

"Very funny nick, very funny. Now get lost, I'm going to type these files with the amazing speed of six words per minute."

After four hours of typing at a truly agonising speed, she started to wish she had stayed at home. She decided to take all the mail that had arrived when she was away to the break-room, hoping that a change of scene would somehow wake her up. In the break-room she found Nick working on his files with a speed that was definitely far above the six words per minute. He smiled at her and waived both hands, grinning evilly.

"Not fair." She mumbled.

She poured herself a cup of coffee and got to work. It was amazing how much mail you could get in one week. After an hour of reading mail her shoulder started to ache again. She popped in a painkiller and decided to see if Grissom was in his office. She actually still had three letters to go trough, but she really couldn't concentrate right now.

She knocked on Grissom's door and entered. Grissom was on the phone but signalled to her to sit down. She looked around his office and couldn't help smiling. She still remembered the first time she had entered it. After taking one look around she had decided that she definitely had taken the wrong door and after finding out that it was the right door, she had decided that Grissom was a bit of a freak. But now, several years later, she knew Grissom was very nice person, just a very nice person with a strange hobby.

She decided to read some mail while waiting for Grissom to get of the phone. She looked at the letter in her hands, it didn't have a return-address, which annoyed her greatly, because that meant that she would have to find the address somewhere in the vast chaos of her office. She opened the envelope, but when she saw what was inside her hands started shaking. She stared unbelievingly at the message in front of her:

ONE TO SCARE

ONE TO FRIGHTEN

ONE TO KILL

She didn't even hear Grissom getting of the phone. She looked up and saw Grissom staring at her. "Catherine, are you alright? You look terrible"

With trembling hands she put the letter on the table for Grissom to read, not wanting to contaminate the evidence even further than she probably already had. She silently cursed herself for getting so upset by this.

"Damn, wait here Catherine, I'm going to get this letter to Greg, He might be able to find something, Okay?"

"Sure, I'm fine Gil," she said, wishing her voice wouldn't sound so shaky.

"You're not," he said curtly before picking up the note with a pincet and leaving the room. Within less then a minute he reappeared with a steaming cup of coffee. He handed it to her while sitting down next to her. "You should go home"

"And then what? Just sit around and wait till he decides to go after me again? It's no good, I'd rather work."

"You can't do field work, and sitting around here at the lab won't make you feel any better. Look I'm worried about you, maybe you should just go away for a while, take a vacation or something."

"I want to work and I'm not going to be stopped by some stupid idiot who happens to hold some grudge against me. I just want to find out who's doing this and put this behind me, and than maybe I'll take a vacation."

"Alright but…" Before he could finish a loud explosion coming from the lab interrupted him, they both jumped up, racing towards the lab wondering what they would find there…

To be continued.

I know this chapter basically sucks, but I'm really busy with the theoretical part of my driver's license (don't know how you call it in English). Next one will be better.

Please review, it does motivate me to go on ;)


	4. target 4

Okay, I know, I know, this took forever, but I'll try to finish this story sometime soon 

Part four

Catherine and Grissom entered the lab, finding a confused looking Greg on the floor.

"What happened, are you alright?" Grissom asked, while helping Greg get back to his feet.

"The note, I, it just… exploded."

"What?" Catherine looked slightly confused at Greg. "Paper can't explode. What did you do with it?"

"Well, I photographed it, I dusted it for prints, checked if I could make out anything else, and than went to type the paper and ink used. So I dissolved part of the note in water, and it just exploded. There must have been some kind of chemical on the paper, something that reacts with water. Good thing I was wearing gloves though, there's barely anything left."

"I wasn't", Catherine said, looking slightly nervous at her hands.

"Keep them away from water, we'll have to find out what kind of chemicals were on the paper, before we know how to safely get them of your hands, just sit down, and touch nothing. Greg, let's get to work…"

Two hours later everybody was sitting in the conference room. After some testing, they had managed to get the chemicals of Catherine's hands and Grissom had called a meating to go over the evidence they had collected so far.

"So he used kalium-phosphorite, it reacts with water, and then, boom… We'll have to assume he has at least some basic knowledge of chemistry," Nick said.

And it's personal, know we know for sure he has it in for Catherine," Warrick added

"Did you make a list of people who might hold a grudge against you?" Sarah asked

"Yes. I did, Brass is looking into it, but unfortunately the list is endless, I helped to put away a lot of people who undoubtly are not very happy about it."

Grissom looked up from the papers in front of him. "We can probably shorten that list quiet a bit. We're not looking at some random idiot. We're dealing with someone who is intelligent, who knows how not to leave any traces behind, possibly someone with knowledge of forensics. I'll talk with Brass about it, in the mean time, lets get back to work, unfortunately this is not our only case."

As everybody cleared the conference room Grissom took Catherine aside.

"Catherine, go home, get some rest, this wasn't exactly a quiet day at work."

"I'm going to send Lindsay to my sister, what if this idiot shows up at my house? If he knows where I work, he might know where I live. I can't risk anything happening to her."

"Would you like to come and stay with me for a while, just till we solved this. I have a very comfortable bedroom."

"I don't want to let this idiot scare me out of my house, I'm not going to give into it. But thanks anyway for the offer. I'll see you tomorrow."

A couple of hours later Catherine is sitting on her couch staring at the TV, but not really watching it. She couldn't help going over the list of possible suspects in her head over and over again. Who would want to do this? Somehow of all those people on that list none of them seems to be a very likely suspect. She sighs as she turns off the TV and the lights, she might as well go and try to get some sleep.

She's half-way up the stairs when she hears a noise coming from up-stairs. She hesitates, inwardly cursing herself for getting this paranoia, takes another two steps and then decides to go back down, to turn on the lights, hoping it will make her feel better. As she turns around she suddenly feels two hands on her back and before she can react she falls down the stairs. In a reflex she tries to put up her hands to break her fall, but with one arm immobilised by her sling, she barely manages to break her fall and she blacks out


End file.
